I reached down and stopped the bleeding at my throat. The wounds healed automatically. I don’t know how.
“The power...” he said. “The unbelievable... power...”
Marek held my arms high overhead with one of his own and bit into the small bud of my left breast. I couldn’t stop him. I could feel the blood running down my front.
“What are you?” he said. Some inner struggle was going on inside him.
“Just kill me and find out,” I said.
Did I have the Suck? Was I going to die?
“Your blood is like an aphrodisiac. I have never felt this powerful before. And here I was going to kill you quick.” His grip slackened briefly.
For my part, I couldn’t move. I was rendered helpless by the touch of his arms, his kiss on my skin.
Something was going on. It was like his blood and mine called to each other.
He fell to his knees, grasping my waist. I could feel him crawling back up to me. Each touch of his smooth dark hands set my soul ablaze.
I didn’t want this. He was a monster. A killer. He said so himself. Halsey! I tried to jog myself.
My blood and his.... For the second time ever, I was struck by a vampire, overwhelmed... by their power....
“GET––OFF––ME!” I said. “I can’t believe you bit me! Marek!”
When he raised up, it was like he was in two voices. Like there were multiple Mareks––my friend and some other monster.
The red eyes glared at me. I knew it was the boker, and not Marek, the necromantic king-sire, who was doing all of this.
“Release him. You’ve no right,” I said to it.
“Halsey.” Marek reached out for me. “I don’t know what’s happening to me,” he said.
His eyes caught sight of the silver metal at my throat; my mother’s locket. Was this boker the reason I had never known my parents? Marek grabbed for it.
I pulled away. I wouldn’t let him touch me, or the locket, ever again.
“Why do you draw away? Can’t you feel the power?”
“You’re not yourself,” I said.
He rose up. The necromancer wearing Marek’s face. “I’m going to kill you, Halsey Rookmaaker.”
“Who ARE you?” I demanded. I think I screamed.
A loud noise broke my piercing shriek. A flood of light and broken glass rained over us, followed by the whisper-soft thud of light feet. The boker turned.
What was rising up was something I had never seen before or dreamed could ever be real.
An enormous, eight-foot-tall creature––with long, bristling black limbs, and yellow eyes.
I saw, like a wave of energy, its jagged claws lash out, and reach for Marek’s jugular. Blood sprayed across the walls. The loss of my blood became too much, at this point. Before I knew it, I had passed out.
Epilogue – Halsey
It felt like I was floating. It was morning. And I was in a bed. I didn’t recognize the people staring down at me. How much time had passed? Where was Marek, now? What was that thing that had saved me from him?
None of it mattered anymore, because when my eyes finally adjusted to the light, my friends were gathered there. I saw Lia and Gaven. They smiled at me fiercely. I think Lia even gave me a wink. Gaven said, “It’s about time you woke up, Halsey. You had us worried for a moment.”
I nodded; it felt good to be liked.
Gaven was still too good-looking to endure; it made my heart do funny things. Next came Ballard, all curly headed and nonchalant. But I could tell he cared.
Lia and Gaven gave us space. They wanted to be alone together. “When you get better,” said Lia, “we’re going shopping.” She waved good-bye.
I heard the motorcycles down in the street. I must’ve been at their house.
“Did we do it? Did we win?” I asked Ballard, smelling his lemon-scented skin.
He nodded.
“And did you, you know––? No one died, did they?” I asked, in a matter-of-fact tone.
“We made it. All of us,” said Ballard. “Except for Marek, of course. He escaped. Got away. You’re the only one he bit.”
I remembered suddenly. “Oh no,” I said. “The Suck. Marek had it. Did it spread to me?”
I felt callous and self-centered, but I couldn’t help it. Ballard waved my fears aside.
“It takes forty-eight hours before someone who is bitten can spread it to another living person,” he said. “Though, if you really want to call a vampire living....”
“Don’t,” I said. “Where is Marek now?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care. He can’t harm you anymore. That’s all I care about,” said Ballard.
I chided him. “You know that radar in your head isn’t very good. I thought you knew when––” I didn’t want to criticize Marek too much “––something was after us,” I said.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” said Ballard. “I think when Marek helped rescue us––” He didn’t like the word, but persevered anyway “––it may have crossed a wire or something in my head. We were surrounded by vampires, after all. How was I supposed to know you had to look out for the ones who only pretended to be nice?”
I wanted to tell him that I loved him. That I would never forget that it had been he and I together, in the beginning. Instead I just said, “I know who you are now, Ballard.” I motioned for him to lean closer. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
He didn’t say anything for a while. When he finally did speak, he said, “There’s someone else here who wants to see you.”
Ballard left me and I closed my eyes.
“Hello beautiful.” When I opened them, Lennox was standing there.
He couldn’t come any closer because the room was bathed in light, but he smiled from the corner. It was more glorious, that smile, than the fact that we were all whole and alive. We were together and we were safe. All of us.
I felt a little jolt go through me about the one that got away.
“It was him, Lennox. Marek. He was the one who was killing all of those girls. He told me so,” I said.
Lennox nodded. Silent. He had some flowers that he’d brought.
I didn’t want him to be quiet guy again. “You don’t have to stalk me, you know?” I said. “I want you to use those supernatural powers you’ve got to visit me often. Because I’m not going back––To New England. My place is here now. I have a lot to figure out, and I could use a vampire to help me.”
My speech had worn me out. Lennox just sighed, and said, “I never expected this. I never thought that I could ever have someone affect me the way you do.”
It was like magic to my ears.
One thing was worrying me, beyond the fact that my landlady was probably going to kick me out when I got back. In the night, it finally dawned on me.
I reached out for Lennox. He was there, waiting for me. I think the spell was only broken by our kiss. Whatever was out there, was out there. It could never truly get to us, I told him, unless we let it into our souls.
“And you live in mine, alone,” I said.
Lennox pressed his lips to mine, and I felt his warmth, gentle and complete. It washed over me, that I had a vampire and a friend. I had a life.
# # #
Discover other titles by T. D. McMichael
Neophyte (The Wiccan Diaries, Volume 2)
Adept (The Wiccan Diaries, Volume 3)
Eight of Jacks
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